Aurora Picture Show presents moving image art

By Ellen Trinklein     3/7/13 6:00pm

On Wednesday afternoon, six students visited a nonprofit media arts center called the Aurora Picture Show to learn about the history and use of film as an art medium, an event organized by Art Lab.

Founded in 1998 by Andrea Grover, the Aurora Picture Show is an art center on Bartlett Street that seeks to "expand the cinematic experience and promote the understanding and appreciation of moving image art," according to its website. Aurora hosts a large library of noncommercial films open to the public, ranging from some of the first films made in the early 1900s to films made by contemporary and local artists.

Wednesday's trip to the Aurora was organized to initiate a discussion on film as an art medium and to help students understand the progression of film as an art form over the past 130 years. 

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Education is one of the foremost goals of Aurora, according to Camilo Gonzalez, Aurora's media arts education manager.

"We're really interested in encouraging appreciation for moving image art," Gonzalez said. "[People] think [moving picture art] is something with a lot of layers and complexities, and it's hard to sell. It's hard to get society to fall in love with [art films], even though we're such a visual society, so we show a lot of films, especially experimental art not shown anywhere else. We are also very interested in promoting

local artists."

The event began with an overview of film history, followed by a series of short films highlighting various filmmaking techniques.

According to Gonzalez, the first thing film allowed artists to do was manipulate time in a way they had never before been able to. To demonstrate the role this revolutionary idea played in early film, the first film shown to the group was Building Up and Demolishing the Star Theater (1901) by F.S. Armitage. This film, one of the first ever to challenge the traditional perception of everyday life, is a short time-lapse showing the demolishing of a building in New York City in reverse. 

Gonzales showed other films that similarly emphasized the aspect of time, including One Year Performance (1979), in which the director takes a picture of himself and stamps a timesheet every hour for a year. 

Next, Gonzalez showed films that highlight the human condition and that edit already-made film and media in order to create something music or new film

interpretations. 

Highlights in these categories were People in Order: 1. Age (2006), directed by James Price and Lenka Clayton, which showed the diversity of life from ages 1 to 100; Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody (2005) by Miranda July and Miguel Arteta, in which a businessman (John C. Reilly) asks passersby whether they are anybody's favorite person; and The Clock (2010) by Christian Marclay, a 24-hour film that splices together clips from films about each specific minute. 

Gonzalez said that what is special about these films is the way they can portray a large idea using even the simplest

technology.

"They are using simple techniques that could be done on your phone," Gonzalez said. "What you pay for is the idea."

Gonzalez ended the discussion with a series of stop-motion films, which use a technique of moving objects across a still background to create animation. This technique is so simple it is a method Gonzalez uses to teach film to elementary school students in the Aurora Picture Show's educational programs. 

Films shown in the stop-motion category included (Notes on) Biology (2011), directed by Danny Madden, a film about creativity and adapting to situation that pushes the limits of stop motion, and various films by the director PES, who is most famous for his Oscar-nominated film Fresh Guacamole (2012).

All participants were extremely pleased with the exploration into moving-picture art that Gonzalez led them through, and many said they hope to come back to other Aurora events in the future. 

"It's something you totally wouldn't know had existed," Brown College sophomore Margo Fendrich said. "I'm so excited to attend more of their [upcoming events]."

On Friday, March 15, the Aurora Picture Show will be collaborating with Art Lab's Extremely Shorts Film Festival. This film festival, which will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Ray Courtyard outside of the Rice Memorial Center, will feature films less than three minutes in length and be judged by a juror from Sundance

Film Festival.

More information about the Aurora Picture show can be found at its website,    www.aurorapictureshow.org. 

All participants were extremely pleased with the exploration into moving picture art that Gonzalez led them through, and many hope to come back in the future. 

"It's something you totally wouldn't know had existed," Brown College sophomore Margo Fendrich said. "I'm so excited to attend more of their upcoming events."

In the future, the Aurora Picture Show will be collaborating with Art Lab's Extremely Shorts Film Festival on Friday, March 15. This film festival, which will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Ray Courtyard outside of the RMC, will feature films less than three minutes in length. 

More information about the Aurora Picture Show can be found at their website, www.aurorapictureshow.org. 

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